Leadership and Creative Expression 2025

About this event

REGISTRATION CLOSES APRIL 1, 2025

This three-day (in person) Leadership and Creative Expression (LCE) conference is a Group Relations Conference (GRC). A GRC is a temporary institution designed to study leadership and authority dynamics as they unfold in the present moment. Instead of focusing on individual leader development or formal instruction, GRCs focus on learning and creating an institution that can contain the emerging lessons and learning experiences of all members of the Conference, including the staff and membership, and at a macro level, society. Unlike many other leadership development programs which acknowledge collective group experience and explore system-level dynamics, individual leadership is ever present during a group relations conference. Yet, individual leadership behaviors are examined as a piece of the complex data that the conference system engenders. The individual is one unit of a complex system that mobilizes hidden and seen parts of individuals, groups, spaces, and time. Individual members are mobilized within the conference system, sometimes in roles outside their conscious awareness but very much in service of the group completion or avoidance of the primary task. Stated another way, GRCs bring into focus the group-as-a-whole (Wells, 1995) as a unit for exploration and the Conference serves as a microcosm of larger system dynamics within which it is embedded.

Wells, L. (1995). The group as a whole: A systemic socioanalytic perspective on interpersonal and group relations. Groups in context: A new perspective on group dynamics, 49-85.

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Special Note: The conference is an educational endeavor and does not provide psychotherapy or sensitivity training. Although the experiential learning available can be stimulating and enriching, it can be stressful and/or emotionally demanding as well. Thus, individuals who are ill or experiencing a period of significant personal difficulty should forgo participating at this time.

This event is open to current CSUDH students and former CSUDH students (alumni) and the South Bay community at large. This event will include space for experiential learning and reflection. Registration pricing for this conference is $50 for CSUDH students, $150.00 for CSUDH alumni, and $300 for community members. This pricing is low with the conscious intent to increase access. We rely on this money to cover the costs of the event and make it possible; that said, if you are unable to afford this pricing for any reason, but still want to attend please email Tara Victor, Associate Director for Conference Administration at [email protected] to inquire about scholarships.

www.csudh.edu/group-relations

Host or Publisher CSUDH & Grex, West Coast Affiliate of AKRI